On Monday, February 26, 2024, I went to one of the Lebanese ministries to collect a certificate related to an application I had submitted last January.
The certificate was ready, but according to one of the employees, it required stamps worth 5,000 Lebanese pounds. I reached into my pocket and pulled out an envelope containing the required stamps, but as soon as the employee saw them, he said:
“These stamps are no longer valid. Their validity has expired; they date back to 2006. You need to buy new ones.”
To make sure, I hurried to ask another employee in a different office, and she gave me the same answer. I had no choice but to go and buy five stamps, each with a nominal value of 1,000 Lebanese pounds, but each costing 100,000 pounds on the market. I returned, stuck them on the certificate, and handed it back to the relevant employee for stamping.
On my way out, I passed by another employee who confirmed that they had been officially instructed not to accept stamps issued long ago.
On the bus ride back to Saida, I couldn’t help but think about how the so-called “Prince of Money” in the government, Youssef Khalil, is busy arranging rewards for his “subjects,” while ignoring the struggles of public sector employees.
He considers that a stamp’s validity has an expiry date, yet the sectarian system that has been in place for 180 years—the very source of internal wars and ongoing crises—apparently never expires. Solutions are still being sought from within this very system, as though its “validity” remains intact, even if that comes at the expense of Lebanon’s very existence.
Two years ago, I wrote a piece about the ongoing stamp crisis, which continues without any intervention from the “Prince of Money” or his concerned directorates.
Back then, on February 9, 2022, I received a message from a friend claiming it came from the minister’s office, asking me not to publish my article. But I believe the validity of that request expired along with the stamps themselves.
Incidentally, two years ago, I had already written about this stamp crisis, which persists without any real solutions from the “Prince of Money” or his departments.
At that time, I received a message from a friend saying it was from the minister’s office, asking me not to publish it. The message was dated February 9, 2022. But I believe the “non-publication validity” has expired just like the stamps.
So, I am publishing it here exactly as it reached me, including all grammatical and linguistic errors:
Unofficial reply from a source at the Ministry of Finance (for review only, not for circulation), responding to what I had written:
“Thank you, I will forward your message.
Despite the overwhelming number of files under his responsibility, the Minister personally follows up on as many public and personal issues as possible, or delegates them to his advisors and department heads.
As for the financial stamps, they were supposedly distributed to the market last week, despite financial challenges, rising costs, and the Omicron wave, which has affected a large number of employees.
What’s worse is the greed of some individuals who hoard the stamps after distribution to resell them for profit.
We are here to help as much as we can.
With respect.”
And yet, it seems that the “princes” of governance are still preoccupied with global matters, leaving what they consider the “petty concerns” of citizens unattended—even after two years.
